LOS ANGELES — On a night when the Los Angeles Kings earned a much-needed 5-3 win over the Calgary Flames at Staples Center in Los Angeles, they honored former head coach Barry Melrose during one of their Legends Nights. But they also honored one very special guest.

On February 12, nine-year-old Grace Bowen, who played right wing for the West Northumberland Wild of the Lower Lakes Female Hockey League, was honored by the Kings prior to the game.

Accompanied by her father, Greg, and her mother, Andrea, young Grace, a native of Grafton, Ontario, dropped the puck for the ceremonial opening face-off.

Doctors found a tumor in her right femur along with a pathological fracture. Grace underwent 7 1/2 months of chemotherapy, along with “…rotation plasty surgery to remove the tumor and utilize her ankle to create a new knee. That joint will be used when Grace gets a prosthetic.”

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Given the odyssey that defenseman prospect Derek Forbort had to endure just to get to Southern California after being recalled by the Los Angeles Kings, he’s lucky to have made it here at all.

“I was in Boston, sitting on the plane for about an hour and a half,” said Forbort. “We were on the runway, waiting for the snow to let up, and it never did, so I had to go back to Manchester for the day.”

“We get a blizzard every Monday,” added Forbort. “We literally have about, I think, like six or seven feet of snow. We get it by the foot every Monday, it seems like.”

EL SEGUNDO, CA — With a 2-3-0 record on their annual Grammy road trip, the Los Angeles Kings came up well short of what they needed to do, given their precarious position in the standings.

Despite that, ending the trip with two wins is something they can and hope to build on.

“We were able to salvage a road trip,” said right wing Justin Williams. “It could’ve gotten really ugly.”

“It seems like we’re a team that puts itself in a lot of holes,” added Williams. “We’ve put ourselves in a big one now, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. We see it. We’ve won a couple of games, and we know if we win the next few, we’re right back in the mix of making the playoffs. But the hardest part is getting in, and we’ve got to make sure we do that in order to defend [as Stanley Cup Champions].”

The Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Galaxy were honored by President Barack Obamaat the White House on February 2, 2015.Official White House Photo: Pete Souza

LOS ANGELES — As they did in March 2013, after they won the 2012 Stanley Cup Championship, the Los Angeles Kings visited the White House in Washington, D.C., as honored guests of the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, on February 2, to be honored as the 2014 Stanley Cup Champions.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — As the Los Angeles Kings begin their annual Grammy road trip tonight at Boston (4:00 PM PST) while Staples Center hosts the annual Grammy Awards, their big home win over the Chicago Blackhawks on January 29 could serve a stepping stone, of sorts.

“I think we stuck with it for 60 minutes,” defenseman Alec Martinez said about the win over Chicago. “I thought our penalty-kill was a lot better. We had three of those kills in the first [period], and we had a big goal on the power play, so special teams was a big difference. That’s what it’s going to take to win games.”

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